Tears
by Kaisa
Summary: Set at the end of book sixteen. "sometimes you have to hurt someone to help them."


You know, I SAID I'd post another story a LOOONG time ago. And now here I am. Finally. I'm sorry, I was being lazy. All I REALLY had to do was pick out another story to post, rewrite it, and post it. But I didn't (until now)... I'm sorry!

This is a short oneshot taking place...what, at the end of volume 16? I took a little bit of it from the end of the book, so those first few quotes were from delrey's translation, just so you know... And yeah, I know it really continues right were it left off in volume 17, so I made Yuko go away for a little bit just so I could write this little story. Oh and there's something else, but I'll talk about it at the end of the story.

Ah, and lets see... I don't think there are any spoilers past volume 16. And this is only rated T for Kuro-to-chan's potty mouth! Tsk!

And I don't own Tsubasa...I know... It's sad...

Oh, and before I forget, I use "Hime" for Sakura in this story (I use that for most of my stories) Hime means 'Princess'... I think that's all you really need to know...

Anyway, I hope you like it!

* * *

"No! Kurogane!" Mokona cried out as Kurogane grabbed Fai's shirt and pulled him from the bed. Mokona had been scared too, when Fai practically said that they should just let him die, but Kurogane had just snapped. Mokona watched as Kurogane glared at Fai forcefully, too angry to even speak.

"Sorry…," was all Fai could say before passing out once again. Kurogane didn't stop glaring. He let the mage's head rest on his chest before turning back to Yuko.

"Witch…is there a way to keep him from dying?"

"Yes, there is," Yuko told him. Her eyes drifted away for a moment. "But saving a life…comes at a costly price, you know. But I'll see what I can do. I'll be speaking with you." And she faded out.

"Kurogane! Stop it! You're hurting him! Stop!" Mokona said frightfully, new tears falling from his eyes.

Kurogane realized that he was gripping Fai's arm as if he wanted to snap it in two. He quickly let it go and let the blonde slump back into the bed. "That idiot!" he growled.

The room was steadily beginning to clear now—maybe because Kurogane had scared them away with his yelling… Or perhaps they sensed that their visitors needed to be left alone at this time. The other Syaoran seemed unsure whether or not to leave, but ended up staying.

"Fai isn't the idiot, Kurogane is the idiot!" Mokona told him. "Kurogane has to _stop hurting Fai!_ Can't Kurogane see that Fai's _hurt?!_"

"Of course I can fucking see it!" Kurogane shouted back. "He's got a _hole_ where his eye was!" Even now that it was bandaged, Kurogane could still picture it in his mind… Blood spilling from the socket… And that _look_ on Fai's face. It looked like he was crying, though no tears fell. And the blood… It almost looked like he was crying blood from that one eye. Kurogane's mind just kept going back to that moment. He just couldn't get that face, that _expression_ out of his head. He didn't _like_ it.

"No! Not _that_ kind of hurt! Kurogane hurts Fai's _feelings!"_

Kurogane glared down at the manjuu. "Oh, sure. Like I care! I'd rather hurt his feelings than let him die!"

Mokona was silent for a long moment. "There are other ways to save a life."

Kurogane frowned and folded his arms across his chest. He could still spot tears in Mokona's eyes. He really _didn't like it_ when the manjuu cried. It just didn't seem right. Not at all. He sighed. "Okay, fine, I get it. You're just trying to protect that damn mage, right? I am too. But right now we can't worry about his _feelings_. If we worried about that now, he'd be dead. Do you want that to happen?"

"No…," Mokona said sadly. "Mokona just doesn't want Fai to be sadder than Fai already is. Mokona…Mokona really wants Fai to be happy."

"Okay, fine, but… I know you're just trying to protect him, but sometimes you have to hurt someone to help them," Kurogane said. "And if it's gonna hurt that _damn idiot_ if I save his life, then bring on the pain, because I am _not_ going to let him die!" He paused for a minute. "And once his life is saved, we can save his life in that other way."

Mokona sniffed and hopped onto Kurogane's shoulder. "Thank you, Kurogane."

Kurogane patted the manjuu's head. He guessed there were times when the Mokona wasn't _that_ annoying.

"Um…," the other Syaoran hummed nervously. He didn't feel right, staying with these people. Sure, he had been the quiet observer throughout his clone's journey, but he didn't have the same connection with these people as his clone did. Would he be able to fit in with them? Would they even take him along?

He watched the blonde mage wince in his sleep. Syaoran bit his tongue hard. "I'm sorry," he finally said, quietly.

Kurogane and Mokona turned to the newcomer.

"What?" Kurogane asked icily. He didn't know this new guy—meaning he _definitely_ didn't trust him, not yet.

Syaoran licked his lips. "I'm sorry that this happened. My clone did this to…to him…" He nodded to Fai. "And…he didn't deserve it, he really didn't." He bowed his head. He wished he could've done something about it. But he had been just as useless as he was before, maybe even more so.

Kurogane glared at him. "Yeah, so what do you care?"

Syaoran's amber eyes drifted back to where Fai lay. "Even though I wasn't _really_ here this whole journey, I still witnessed it all. I feel like I know him. He was very kind to the hime and my clone… He…he just didn't deserve this. He was only trying to save his heart—save the hime's heart. I just feeling like this is all my fault. I'm sorry…"

Kurogane turned away, not responding.

Syaoran blinked slowly, calling back the memories of the journey. He didn't want to see anyone hurt… And now… He looked at Fai again. "I'm sorry, Fai-san." Something warm dripped down his face, and he swiped his hand at his face, ridding it of the annoyance.

"Fai will be okay."

Syaoran opened his eyes again to see Mokona.

"Fai will be okay because Kurogane says so. Kurogane and Mokona protect Fai."

Syaoran forced a smile and rested a hand on Mokona's head. Sure, maybe he'll live. But they wouldn't be able to return his eye, or erase the pain.

Fai began to stir in the bed, letting out something akin to a groan. "No…no, stop it…," he mumbled. "I don't want that…stop…"

Kurogane leaned over the bed. The blonde was sweating. Probably a nightmare, then.

"Don't do that!" the mage suddenly cried out, his eye snapping open. The sole remaining blue orb darted around fearfully until it found Kurogane's face. "O-oh, I'm still here," he muttered quietly to himself, as if he were surprised that he still drew breath.

Kurogane couldn't help but to glare at him. "You're pathetic," he spat, before turning away.

Mokona frowned at the ninja, but hopped over to Fai. "Are you okay, Fai?"

Fai blinked loose a tear. "Yeah," he lied with a small laugh. "Yeah, I'm fine." More tears.

_I want to die,_ Fai thought to himself as he closed his eyes. _I want to die, I want to die, I want to die._

_But Kurogane doesn't want me to die… Why is that again? Oh well, no matter. He can't do anything now…_

"Will you stop _lying_ already?!" Kurogane had turned back around. "You're missing an _eye_. You are _not_ fine!"

Fai brought a hand to hover over his bandaged eye. It felt eerie, having nothing there but an empty socket.

Kurogane opened his mouth to say something more, but spotted the tears in the mage's eye. He sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the wizard long and hard. "You _will_ be fine. I'm not going to let you die."

"You-you have to…"

Kurogane frowned. "No. No, I don't _have_ to, you idiot."

"Ye-ye-yes, you……" Fai's eye rolled back, and he passed out again.

Kurogane wiped away crystal tears from the blonde's clammy face. Tears really didn't fit with him. Tears didn't fit well with _any_ of them. He didn't _like_ seeing everyone crying. He couldn't _stand_ to watch Sakura cry in her sleep. He didn't _like_ the stifled sobs or the loud weeping. He never did. He _especially_ didn't like the tears that he could feel in his emotions. They were there, he could feel them so easily. But they never even made it to his eyes. They never did anymore.

He clenched his fists. He found himself looking to Fai again, whispering, "After I save you—oh and believe me, I _will _save you—I'll make sure none of us ever cry again."

* * *

Hm, so that's it. Yes, I know, it's so short. lol... But, oh, yes, anyway. As I was saying before, I took the first couple of quotes from the book... it's just the part where Kurogane lets Fai's head rest on his chest... Well, the very last page in the book KINDA looks like that... I just put that in mostly because of my KuroFai-fan in me... You could actually take this story as light fluffiness if you want, but if you don't roll that way (lol) that's fine too.

So I've got a couple of stories I'm thinking of posting next. And since I can't quite decide, I'll give you three choices. And while you leave your review (which i REALLY hope you do leave one) you can give a vote if you want.

So the choices are:

1 - Another story set in the Tokyo arc that's about twice as long as this one. It takes place right after Kurogane does his whole "shape up and figure out where you stand" talk to Fai. I'm not sure how to describe this one. Lotsa Fai angst though. Oh I know everyone loves that, lol.

2 - A story taking place near the end of the Tokyo arc (I have a few Tokyo stories, lol... just bear with me) where Fai is thinking about how he got too close to Kurogane, and now it's tearing them both apart. (KuroFainess!) and Fai angst again...

3 - A story taking place BEFORE the Tokyo arc where Kurogane is forced into anger management and Fai is the teacher (not really any angst here, lol, just some silliness and pissed!Kuro... and maybe KuroFai if you look at it that way, lol)

Okay, those are the choices. If you vote or if you don't vote...it doesn't really matter as long as you REVIEW please REVIEW lol.


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